Pandora's Box
by Starherd
Summary: Final Fantasy VII and Beowulf 2007, post game and movie. A Fortuitous Meeting of Mother and Mother to Pave the Way to the Promised Land. Jenova x Grendel's Mother. No clothing in this fic. XD Could be Yuri, but that's debatable, and it'd be offscreen.


**Author's Note:** Apparently this is what you get when you show me nekkid cgi Angelina Jolie. XD

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**Pandora's Box**

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She stood near the entrance to the cave, head tilted. This was i her /i cave and i her /i treasure within, and she would share only with those whom she chose, and she chose her own kind. But there were so, so few of her own kind left in the world, and even her sons eventually left her, and there were no longer heroes to come give her new sons.

This... this thing standing across the mere from her was not a hero. This was an intruder. A threat. Her golden tail lashed.

But the intruder had not yet seen her. The intruder was standing at the top of the rise with its back to her, head cocked in nearly the same way hers had been, surveying the human settlement at the base of the mountain.

The intruder had not come from the settlement. It had come over the rocks to one side of the mere, from the far side of the mountain, where there was no-one and nothing forever away. This was very odd, as despite the snow whipping about the mountainside, the intruder wore neither weave nor fur, its skin bare and blue in the shadows.

The golden one drew back into the darkness, folded in on herself, and re-emerged, stilted feet treading lightly on the surface of the mere. "Who are you, Traveler?" She called out in the human tongue. The intruder appeared to be human, but she was sure that it was not.

The intruder stood straighter, then turned its head a little, long silvery hair streaming in the wind. She felt something - like a human hand caressing her cheek, stroking her pulled-back hair, but there was no warmth, and no hand, and none close to touch her.

"I... am," the intruder murmured in a quiet voice that drowned out the wind. And when the intruder turned, he was golden and masculine, the silver hair vanished.

Her voice caught in her throat, a moment's surprise at the illusion. "Do not think to deceive me," she hissed, stepping back. "Do not presume to open old wounds. You are no son of mine."

"And you are no fool human." The intruder's voice was stronger now, and slid as it spoke from the long-missing male voice to a softer, purring, feminine tone. The golden body melted away as the intruder stepped forward into the water, revealing the curves and blue shadows and streaming moon-silver hair of a narrow-faced woman. "You are... other. You were here first, were you not?" She waved vaguely toward the village. "Before the Cetra came and polluted this world as humans as well?"

"As well?" The woman on the water echoed, the liquid gold that had been dripping from her form freezing in place. She stepped nearer, the water rippling slightly, lapping at the intruder's shins. "There are other worlds of humans?"

The intruder looked aside with apparent sadness - a sign that she was placing trust in the golden woman. "There are many. Long I have sought a world without them, a Promised Land where my own kind may flourish, and have found none."

She tilted her head again. "Are you first, then, to reach this world? Will more of your kind come?"

"No," the other said softly. "None but I am left, so far as I know. I am mother to my race."

The golden one sighed and looked aside as well, her tail-that-was-now-braided-hair lashing uncomfortably. "We are alike then, or nearly so. My kind are now very few. My sons are dead, and none to venture here to give me new sons."

The silver one raised an eyebrow, regarding the golden anew. "I have had fine sons, all of whom are eons gone now," she murmured, stepping nearer, water up to her thighs now. With large eyes that gleamed like embers, she gazed up at the golden mother. "They sacrificed themselves to help me leave a world that was poison to me, and only the seeds of their memories remain within me." She moved nearer still, waist-deep. Her hair floated on the icy water like tentacles, fanning out to the sides and curving toward the other. "Will you bear my sons, that we may reclaim this world from the Cetra disease that has killed your kind? Our blood intermingled will be strong. Mankind will fall before us."

The golden looked down with dark eyes, the sadness suddenly stirred by something else. "But are you not truly female?" She asked curiously.

"I have never been one to let so simple a thing stand in my way," the silver purred, her voice darkening, deepening as her shoulders broadened and chest flattened. "I only even learned that distinction a few thousand years ago..."

The golden one smiled and reached down, taking the hand of the silver one who took on the form of her greatest son. They disappeared into the darkness of the cavern together.

It was thousands of years before pure humans were bred out of existence on Earth. By the time the last full-blooded human died, the world knew that it should belong only to those with the blood of the Mothers. Earth was the birthright of those of the blood of Grendel's Mother, whose people had lived on Earth before the Cetra came; and the blood of Jenova, who saved the world from the humans left by the Cetra, and made Earth the Promised Land.

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**Disclaimer:**The Final Fantasy VII compilation (in particular, Advent Children), its story, and characters are the property, copyright and trademark of Square Electronic Arts L.L.C. The film Beowulf (2007), its story, and characters are the property, copyright, and trademark of Paramount Pictures. No ownership or claim on said property, copyright or trademark is made or implied by their use in the work(s) of fan fiction presented here. This fan fiction constitutes a personal comment on the aforesaid properties pursuant to doctrines of fair use and fair comment. This fan fiction is non-commercial, not for sale or profit, and may not be sold or reproduced for commercial purposes. 


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